6 Key Factors for a Successful Digital Transformation

The last few years have shown an obvious need for technological modification. However, despite the interest in this process, the digital transformation leads to many difficulties in its implementation. Every company whose management makes such a decision has a long way to go.

Based on my own experience, I decided to share a number of tips that will help you avoid common mistakes and make your business digital transformation process truly successful.

Document the transition to digital

Properly introduced control elements play an important part when any initiative is implemented. The main control functions, which companies often wrongly neglect, are:

System status reports

Progress tracking

Assembly and deployment automation

Testing automation platforms

System performance monitoring

Observe consistency

Digital transformation can be short or long-term, but, in any case, it has to be consistent. Few companies have the required resources to implement it in a short time. Most businesses choose long-term initiatives.

Moreover, regardless of the implementation model, modifications have to be well planned and consistent – otherwise, the company risks finding itself in a difficult situation.

The transition should be planned for a reason as well, as it will simplify their economic efficiency assessment.

Ensure integration with legacy systems

It is quite hard, or even completely impossible, to instantly switch from the old to the new, especially when we are talking about a large company with a complex structure and elaborate processes. Within a certain period of time, it will probably be necessary to ensure the simultaneous functioning of a number of old system components with new ones.

At Lvivity, we are convinced that progress in small steps is a key factor that allows you to reduce risks. It is necessary to replace old systems with new services carefully, creating integration interfaces and transitional solutions.

Employee engagement is crucial

The enthusiasm and involvement of company employees are the key factors necessary to efficiently implement digital transformation with a view toward achieving long-term goals. Employees should be interested in transformation as well. By skipping this element, the company management will have a hard time communicating their strategy to them and creating a cohesive team that will work on digital transformation processes.

To implement changes at the operational level, you can create a cross-functional team consisting of department employees who are responsible for certain aspects of the process.

Transformation transparency

The transformation process changes the usual conditions and takes people out of their comfort zone. Taking into account that many departments participate in the process, discussions about distributed responsibilities often arise. Decision-making transparency is the most effective strategy under such circumstances.

First of all, there are possible particular fears for employees or individual top managers who are afraid of losing their importance or position. Others are scared of the uncertainty of the situation. Still others develop vigorous activities at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

There is always a small group of people who are willing to sacrifice the company’s long-term interests for their personal benefits. Therefore, it would be better for the management to explain to their employees what actions they are going to take and what they expect the team to do.

Find a good technical partner

You may think of digital transformation as a project that will have to be completed sooner or later. However, a more correct approach to it is to perceive it as a permanent process that constantly requires improvements.

To speed up transformation implementation to its maximum, it would be best to entrust the system support and integration to a dedicated team. It will also implement customer support on demand, making it as fast as possible.

Other benefits of attracting third-party IT specialists to solve such issues are:

Possible risk reduction

Time-consumption reduction

Long-term cost reduction

Mentoring and leadership for employees

Why is digital transformation necessary?

Just like a living organism adapts to changing environmental conditions, digital transformation allows your business to quickly respond to external economic factors and market dynamics.

Its benefits for business are obvious. The decision-making and operation speed increase, and labor costs and other expenditure necessary to perform certain actions are significantly reduced. As a result, we get lower production costs (be it a product or a service), and the company increases net profit from selling it.

Nowadays, companies of any level are forced to adapt to changes in the global economy and use innovative approaches. Otherwise, competitors will gain all the profit because they will become more flexible and adapt more easily to modern technologies of doing business.